Ignition Book 1: The Keystone Thief
by SilvrSmith
Summary: Blaze Heliette is an orphaned Monferno. He forms an exploration team with his small group of friends. Their first job: track down the Dark Keystone, a magical stone owned by Treasure Town's biggest museum. But this mystery becomes more complicated when two innocent Pokemon are murdered in cold blood by a mysterious Pokemon in a cloak. Will Team Ignition solve the mystery?


_Hello everyone! My name, or at least my internet name, is SilvrSmith. This is the first chapter of my first fan-fiction ever, and it's one that I've had in the making for a while. In it, I introduce Sableye, a semi-main character throughout the story. Warning: This chapter is ambiguous! I am purposefully trying to keep things vague to develop the plot more later. All too many times I've read books where it would seem that the author only designs the story at the end of the novel, leaving you in the dark. Trust me; I don't want to do that and I won't. Just wait. Also, reviews are always appreciated. Given that I'm just starting out, I could always use some advice, critical or complimentary. I'll try to respond to any questions I see._

_Anyway, I'll just stop talking about boring things now and actually start the book._

_Oh, and share this with anyone you think might enjoy it! Peace out!_

Ignition

**Chapter 1: Shuckle Storage Yards- Treasure Town**

**Pennecrow**

It is a dark and stormy night. Normally, I would love nights like this. But tonight… I was too stressed and too drenched to enjoy the gloomy climate. Treasure Town isn't a particularly stormy city, but when it rains, it pours. My fur is all matted down from the deluge of frigid precipitation, and I feel waterlogged and sluggish, which doesn't help me in my situation. Stealth was more important than speed in most cases, but if I did, in fact, get caught in the act of theft, I needed all the agility I could muster up at a second's notice. Given that I had been blamed for exactly 147 thefts to date, getting caught was not exactly a beautiful prospect.

I sneak through a memorized labyrinth of alleyways in the northern district of Treasure Town, making my way towards the Museum of Ancient Legends and Archaeological Artifacts. There, I would find the Dark Keystone. My entire life, I'd made a bare-minimum living off of snatching gems of all varieties and reselling them on the black market. I'd seen all kinds of stones, crimson and jade, brilliant and dull. But if my dream had been correct, what I was about to steal, the Dark Keystone, my 148th trophy, was far more incredible than anything I had seen thus far. And I certainly didn't plan on selling it.

I turn a corner, nearly slipping on a puddle of garbage water. Shaking the excess muck out of my fur, I creep up to the museum wall. You see, the awesome thing about being a Ghost type and a thief simultaneously is that you can walk through walls. Locked doors were no match for me. I focus, and I feel my arms and legs fuse into my body, forming a single streak of shadow. Then I sink into the ground. A Shadow Sneak attack. When in shadow form, I can't interact with the physical world, which means it can't interact with me either. Swerving like a snake in the sand, I creep under- or rather, through- the museum wall and into the foyer.

I enter my physical form again and look around. I'm in a grand, open hall, a foyer or entryway of some sort. In a way, I was hoping I would end up right in the geology room, so I could get in and get out as quickly as I could. No such luck. Luck never really was my friend. Like a confused tourist attempting to get their bearings, I creep over to a large, glowing map display and get to work. The displays always use a code of sorts, so I have to look up the number for the geology room, then find the number on the map, and _then_ figure out how to get there. It takes to much time; these maps ought to have one of those mind-reading devices that the scientists at Calm Mind Science Academy had been developing. Then I could make it useless that much faster. _No one would be entering the geology room after I did my dirt work_, I giggled to myself, _because the police tape would block off the entrance._

I locate a stairwell and make my way up to sixth floor. This museum was gargantuan, from what I had caught word of. The curator, Malachi, a Sigilyph, was practically obsessed with his ancient oddities, and he hadn't stopped collecting for a second since he began in his childhood. A large collection requires a large storage building; so Malachi had paid for the construction of a ten-floor skyscraper to house his precious relics. And yet, as Flying types tend to do, he hadn't even considered an elevator. I pant heavily as I climb the last flight of stairs. My race, the Sableye, is good at fighting, but even with my heavy speed training, we sucked at running.

I squeak the door to the sixth floor open, but immediately close it as I hear voices coming from down the hall. Catching my breath and trying (unsuccessfully) to decelerate my heart beat, I slowly nudge the door open and peek timidly around the hall. I see three Pokemon, sitting and waiting as if they had nothing in the world to occupy themselves. There are two girls, a Roselia and a Kirlia, and one boy, a Mienfoo, who is currently locked in a furious argument with the Kirlia.

"...even be sure he'll try here next! He hasn't shown any pattern in his thefts. It would appear that he just takes the most valuable thing that is the closest to him. How do you know the museum is where he'd strike next?"

Mm. Trouble. Treasure Town didn't have an official police force. Instead, it relied on its two rival guilds, or places where Pokemon could hone their battling skills by tracking down "criminal scum" like me. There was Wigglytuff's Guild, which had an incredibly long history with the town, but typically didn't draw from as talented a recruit pool as Gallade's Guild. G.G, as I like to call them, was the real problem. They were legit. Depending on the level that the recruits participated at, they might have to do calculus or quantum physics classes. They also received battle training multiple times daily. I'd had run-ins with those guys before, and I had literally gotten out by a hair's length. They appeared to be young, which typically meant inexperienced, but if the recruits apparently waiting to bring me in were from G.G, then I was in more trouble than I originally thought this was worth.

The Kirlia's high, girlish voice follows the sarcastic boyish tone that spoke before. "Oh, come on, Ming. Have some faith in my Calculotronicus 5000. How many times has it worked before?"

A moment of silence passes before the Mienfoo, named Ming, I assume, answers condescendingly, "Every time…"

"Dang right. Now shut up and wait." The girl rebukes him for his "mistrust" in her contraption.

The Roselia finally speaks up. She seems to be the leader of the group, or rather, a babysitter for the other two. "If I may remind the both of you that an ambush typically requires silence," she says, exhausted.

"Fine. I'll be quiet for now. But you can count on me being as noisy as all heck tomorrow when we've spent a night in a creepy museum for nothing!"

"Ming! Be quiet! I can put you to sleep again if I need to!" the Roselia threatens, her voice raising by what I'm guessing would be equivalent to the volume of a nuclear explosion.

The Mienfoo, apparently astonished to the point of tacitness, mumbles under his breath for a bit, but eventually decides the fight isn't worth the effort. So, a sleep inducing move. Grass Whistle, probably. I'll be especially susceptible because of my acute hearing. Not good. Luckily, none of my opponents had speed high enough to outweigh my training in that area, so if I could make this quick, I might have a chance. Also, while they had predicted my attack on the museum with some kind of… supercomputer calculator device, they hadn't predicted what I was going to knab. The Dark Keystone was off to their right, sitting comfortably in its glass box. It would appear that they didn't actually know why I would hit the museum, so they assumed it would be for something shiny, and therefore were guarding the golden amulets and shining sapphires on the far side of the room. Little did they know they left my real target wide open. As the Roselia retakes her seat, the Mienfoo begins to meditate, and the Kirlia pulls out a mobile phone, I begin to make my move.

I use Shadow Sneak and slither under the door and down the hall, remaining in the shadows cast by the moonlight coming through the window. I regain my physical body, then slide along the wall, stalking ever closer to my intended target. Once I get close enough, I begin the game. I fire off a Confuse Ray, sending off a teensy little spinning wisp of ominous light that distracts and confuses whoever sees it. The Roselia is the first to notice the orbiting spheres of light, and she points it out to her friends.

"What's… that light…" she says, in a daze. The Mienfoo opens his eyes, breaking his meditation. He looks at the light, becoming entranced."So pretty…" he says without any real voice. Their heads seem to nod and sway in a ghostly, ethereal rhythm. Creepy, even for me. The Kirlia, however, has other plans than becoming dazed by a mere orb. She glances up from her phone.

"What is it guys?" She asks as she looks around. Her eyes land on the ray, and I cross my fingers and pray to Arceus.

I was never religious.

The Kirlia's eyes narrow, and she suddenly realizes what is happening. Jumping to her feet, she runs to her friends and yells at them, attempting to disengage their focus on the Confuse Ray attack. "Hey! Chrys! Ming! What is wrong with you two?! Wake up, dangit!" She sighs, defeated, then realizes that Confuse Rays don't just spontaneously come into existence. She performs a speedy about-face, just in time to see me, bathed in bright moonlight, attempting to quietly open the glass case around the Dark Keystone.

"Hey! Stop!" she yells. Not as bright as I thought, I guess. I smash the case with a Power Gem attack, then snatch the ebony stone from its perch and make for the window. She bolts after me. Judging by her Psychic typing, I won't be able to hide, which sucks. See, Psychic types have the power to see things beyond what your average Poke-Joe can see. Some call it the sixth sense, some call it E.S.P, and some call it X-ray vision. I call it cheating, but that's beside the point. Overall, if the Kirlia had any Psychic ability whatsoever, I wasn't going to win a game of hide-and-seek.

But honestly, a fight was probably in my favor anyway. My typing didn't beat hers totally; she was a Fairy type,meaning she had a Fairy type move, which was my only true weakness. However, she was also a Psychic, and that meant our types balanced out overall, since both Ghost and Dark beat Psychic to a pulp. If I could just break her mental focus, I could get away with all of my limbs still existing on the corporeal plane. Without further ado, I cut the theatrics and get on with the show- wait. Does that make sense? Because the theatrics _are_ the show- nevermind.

I reach the window and smash it with another Power Gem. I hadn't noticed the alarms when I smashed the case, but I did now as they silently faded from my ears. I leaped from the window and landed on the roof of the building next door. It was a big drop, maybe, three stories, but I was a master of the role. (No, not the barrel roll.) The Kirlia follows me close behind, apparently letting her friends get some much-needed sleep… of sorts. We sprint over rooftops, jumping over the backstreets that I so recently skulked through. I wanted to lead her to Shuckle's Storage Yards for three reasons: firstly, wide open space. The warehouses and surrounding area there provided a rare and much-needed field with very few obstacles, which my speedy battle style depended on. Secondly:It was far away. The Kirlia probably also had telepathy powers, and if she didn't, she had a phone. Reinforcements were coming in some form, and I wanted to get as distant from those as possible.

Lastly, I held my base there. I had rented out a warehouse under a false name (Eve L. Spirit...hehe...get it?) and used it to store any and all extra thieved goods. If things got desperate, and I needed to save the Dark Keystone, then I could pull a swap between it and another gem at the last minute. Chances were, they probably wouldn't notice until I had a chance to break out of prison, return to the warehouse unnoticed, and reclaim my prize.

Yeah. Fat chance. But I didn't have a choice. I lock my eyes on the fence surrounding Shuckle's. Like I was straight out of an action movie, I leap over the fence, the stone clutched tightly in my hand. As soon as I'm over, I land on a warehouse roof, where I stop abruptly and wait for my opponent.

The Kirlia leaps over the fence, barely grabbing the edge of the warehouse roof. Not very agile, huh? Good. She pulls herself up, panting from the rather extensive chase. Glancing downward, she groans, seeing her soiled skirt. "Seriously?! That was my favorite dress!" Here she looks up at me, casting a vengeful glare. "You aren't just a petty thief anymore, Sableye! I've got personal beef now!"

"Mm. Beef. Sounds delicious." I joke, waiting for her to make her move.

"Shut up and fight, you jerk!" she shouts. She locks her hands in front of her and mumbles something under her breath. Her hands glow with a bright pink light that oscillates in little waves. Then she fires it towards me in a shaking ring of psychic power. I just stand there and eat up her Confusion attack like it was nothing. I grin at her shocked complexion.

"That was tasty. Was it an appetizer before the beef?" I jeer, my admittedly creepy grin growing ever wider. A look of realization passes over her face, as she remembers that Psychic attacks don't affect Dark types. Deciding to cut the crap, I rush forward, forming ball of pitch-black shadow within my hand. I jump up and throw it at her. Shaking herself out of her shock, she jumps to the side just before it hits her. She does a pirouette, turning to face me, then summons a maelstrom of rainbow-colored leaves. Magical Leaf. I use Shadow Sneak and bolt into the ground, narrowly ducking under the vernal swarm. I speed forward, then pop back up into physical form and attack- the air where she should have been. I hear a scrape of shoes on concrete behind me, and turn around straight into another Magical Leaf attack.

The sheer force of the leaves is enough to cut through my fur, leaving several gashes where I was hit. She may have been young, but this little bugger was tough. I was going to have to find a way to get an advantage over her if I wanted to escape alive. I then realize that I am literally standing on top of a box of weapons, medicines, and various other items. I drop down over the roof, hanging onto the edge with my claws, then find a window and kick through it. I am now inside the warehouse.

I can't see anything, even with my abnormally accurate vision. I enter shadow form again and scope out the area using my extraphysical perception. That's the technical name for it; whenever a Pokemon goes into some kind of alternate, non-corporeal form, they use extraphysical perception to continue seeing objects in the physical plane. It was useful in many cases, and almost exclusively belonged to Psychic and Ghost types. I check my surroundings, and I like what I see.

I don't know what I had been expecting. Some berries, a potion or two, maybe a weapon if I got really lucky. Certainly not a torture chamber for all things even partially good. But that was what I got. Whoever owned this warehouse had a sick sense of priority. It seemed weird, but it worked well for me. The warehouse was filled with weapons and tools of all varieties. There were some boxes labeled with skulls and crossbones and biohazard signs. Perfect! Fairy types were only weak to poison and steel, and I had a myriad of both of those right in front of me. I dash over to a corner and break open a box. I pull out a jar of vile yellow goo, and replace it with my Keystone. If I did in fact lose the battle, I didn't want to lose possession of my prize as well. That could be very, very bad, for me and the rest of the world.

I grab what looks like a khopesh (those weird, curved Egyptian swords) from off of the floor and break the jar of goo over its tip. The goo seeps over the blade with a sort of soft sizzling noise, and I feel heat from the poison. I did not want to know what that Kirlia seems to have fallen off of the roof, lacking the grace that their kind typically possesses. As she picks herself up and climbs through the window, cursing, I close the crate I opened and hide myself behind it.

She hops through the window, nearly landing on the broken glass. Looking around, she doesn't see me, but immediately goes ethereal mode. She closes her eyes momentarily, then opens them widely. They glow blue, and a pulse radiates throughout the room. At that exact moment, I leap out and slice at her with the khopesh, before she can even turn all the way around, the blow sends her flying backwards, a sizzling scrape left in her side. She struggles to get to her feet, and I leap towards her again, about to throw the final punch.

Then she disappears.

Teleport is an incredible technique. You'd think it would leave some trace of its occurrence, but no. It just… happens. The user just disappears, then reappears simultaneously somewhere else. No flash of light, or warping sounds. Just a quick one-two sequence. Its dang hard to predict, thats for sure. Before I even realize what just happened, I hear an exhaustedly victorious taunt behind me.

"Peek-a-boo." I whirl around at speeds rivaling a tornado. The Kirlia leans forward immediately, and… kisses me? I stumble backwards, blushing, bewildered by the situation. And then the dizziness sets in. Draining Kiss. Crap. I repeatedly twirl around, entirely discoordinated. My senses aren't functioning correctly. My balance goes off, and I fall down to the cold stone floor. The last thing I see before I pass out is the girl's cut healing entirely.


End file.
